There is a LCO here in town that has a bed extension that gives him a 10' bed. It has a fold up drop down ramp. He carries a 21" and 48" John Deere units around plus gas, trimmer, blower with plenty of room. He has carried another 48" around before, but it looked really cramped, but still it was all in there.

He most definatly takes up less room than a truck and trailer. The cost and up keep is also surely lower. It is really a sweet setup.

I have never put a 48" in my truck but I did run my 36" out of my truck last season. It worked like a charm. I have seen a 48" and a 36" in the back of a full size pick up and I am still not sure exactly how they did that....

If getting it between the wheel wells is an issue you can always back it on and let the deck ride partially on the tailgate and the handles toward the front. Just make sure you secure it down very, very well....

Mark

Note: I work for the fire department and have seen first hand what a 21" lawn boy will do when barely secured. It went thru the back window of the Nissan Pickup and landed in the cab. Fortunately no one was hurt. Imagine if it had gotten out of the pickup and went through someone else's window or struck a pedestrian. Can you say "LAWSUIT"? (Yes, the lawn boy was trashed but held up much better than I would have expected.)

Please forgive my old shot worn out greedy boards. I am getting the material list ready to make a new setup that will be weather tight.

This will give you new guys an idea on how and where to hang stuff. The plastic storage box was bought at a garage sale for $20. This is where my pesticides are locked down and any spilage is contained inside.

Can anyone see where my spreader is located?

In the bed of the truck the normal load is a 44" walkbehind with a stand up sulky which is set up with a electric spreader and sprayer if needed and a 21" trimming mower.

Then depending on the job I load a 62" and/or a 52" walkbehind on a 12ft open trailer. With the trailer hooked up I can just pull the ramp gate down into the trailer to have access to the 44" wb.

My trailer has storage for two hand blowers and two string trimmers so I have two self contained mowing setups and can drop the trailer off at an industrial site with a laborer while I go about doing small-mid size homesites by myself.

I usually piggy back one of my 21" on top of my 36" with a second 21" in front of it. I also built my own tool box that holds everything else including my trimmers. I don't have a trailer right now. Being in the mountains of WV the roads are very narrow and most people don't have their own driveway so the less vehicle i have to park the better.

Anyone ever had a problem with the tailgate cables breaking under the load from the machine on it? I have heard of this once and was worried about loading something into my Toyota. I noticed the person in the above picture does not use a tailgate.